EPG? Microsoft on the topic

[drewhiggins]

Hey all, I emailed Microsoft yesterday afternoon about the possibility of an Australian EPG. Here is their response, unedited. And because it has a phone number, ring and complain about the lack of this much-needed feature.











Dear Drew,
Thank you for contacting Microsoft Customer Service. My name is Thana.

As I understand it, you would like to know obtain the EPG in Australia. If this is incorrect, please let me know.

Drew, please be advised that Microsoft have not made any announcements about the EPG to be available in Australia. Due to legal issue Microsoft is not able to provide this service in Australia at the moment. Microsoft will make announcement if we are about to provide the EPG in Australia.

Drew, I hope I was able to address your enquiry to your satisfaction, should you have further questions relating to this enquiry or any additional enquiries, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Alternatively, for immediate assistance, you can contact the Microsoft Customer Service on 13 20 58 from Monday to Friday, between 8am - 8pm.

Thank you for contacting Microsoft.

Kind regards,

Thanaraj | Correspondence Representative | Microsoft Customer Service | Australia | Fax: +61 2 9870 2466




---
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Message: I would like to know why there is not an EPG in Australia. I have been told there is one provided by Microsoft so where is it? This would be nice to see and I would be very happy if you could possibly provide one for those of us who do not have it.

Please don't leave us behind. We support Microsoft too, so why don't we get the extra stuff that the US do? I read it is because of legal issues. Please advise as i really want one soon, and Vista doesn't come with one.

Thank you. Please contact me in regards.

[simbot82]

ha thats the same person who contacted me RE xbox 360 repairs. Ridiculous

[drewhiggins]

What a coincidence.

[mikehayton]

Hey there,

Im a developer in the Guide team for the Media Center (and also a Kiwi).
I recently joined the team at the end of July, moving from a team in Visual Studio.

Sorry about the poor response that you received. A lot of Microsoft Customer support is now done out of India. Given the wording of the reply and the person's name, I think that's where it came from.

I would like to know why there is not an EPG in Australia.

My understanding is that there is no EPG data in Australia because the local networks copyright the EPG data. Microsoft can not get the license to use the data in Media Center (and its not for the lack of trying).

The networks have licensed the data for display on web sites & in print. NineMSN & HWW have such a license (where Microsoft has some financial stake in both). However, they would be in legal trouble if their data is used in PVRs (like the Media Center).

Personally, I think the Australian copyright laws are crazy - check out this news article.

I've been asking around for the latest status and recent history on this topic. If I find out anything different, I'll let you know.

Let me state:

1. Without an EPG, the value of Media Center is greatly diminished.
2. Microsoft wants an EPG available in Australia (and other countries without an EPG).
3. Microsoft is working to try and provide an EPG for you (and more specifically the average Joe User that wouldnt have a clue about web scraping etc)

When? Well, that's the $65,000 question. It depends on the copyright laws and your networks.


Cheers

Mike

P.S. A little bit of trivia. The media center is developed mostly in Redmond, USA on the ground floor of this building.
Most of the microsoft buildings are to the south east of this building.

So the next time your Media Center blue screens, this is where you can target your nuke.

[TiggerK]

Thanks for some insider info Mike, good to see that Microsoft have at least one sensible real world Kiwi on the team. (Yes, I'm a Kiwi too eh bro ). I hope you continue the fight on behalf of we Media Centre (Center) guide lovers.

(I removed some extra posts of yours not sure what went wrong for you there..... )

Great to have you aboard, don't be a stranger. I think MS are going to find the guide problem becoming even more of an issue once Vista Home Premium and Ultimate become the O/S of choice for many. But I'm sceptical that Nine and HWW will ever wake up and join us in the real world.

Cheers
TiggerK

[GlenR]

Originally Posted by mikehayton

Personally, I think the Australian copyright laws are crazy - check out this news article.

That's just scary! If it's correct, we will all be criminals just for owning a PC.

On a slightly off-topic note mikehayton, is there a patch in the wings for the guide crashing in MCE2005 for DVB transmission users? See here for an outline of what I mean. According to this guy there was supposed to be a patch earlier this year. Hopefully this hasn't been killed with the now near release of Vista.

[farnold]

Originally Posted by GlenR

That's just scary! If it's correct, we will all be criminals just for owning a PC.

Yeah, right, but isn't that just in the best Australian tradition since the 1st fleet arrived

[epgStream]

Originally Posted by mikehayton

Personally, I think the Australian copyright laws are crazy - check out this news article.

Originally Posted by The $65,000 question: do you own an iPod?

The exceptions allow users to make one "main copy" of a CD as well as "temporary copies", but the temporary copies must be destroyed at the "first practicable time".

Yes Officer, every morning I backup my CD collection onto my iPod for the trip to work and absolutely make sure I delete the songs off it when I get home at night ... Honest!

[drewhiggins]

You'd damn well better delete those songs from your iPod.

I do it every night. I know someone is going to get me on the train for not deleting the
songs from it, so I'm always careful.........don't want to risk it. Especially after listening once.




WinPod is gonna take off!! Get rid of your camera phones or DVDrecorders, they're banned.

So would that mean we'd have to get rid of our MCEs according to the SMH report? What good'd this forum be then? Absolutely ridiculous. As a person who listens to live shows all the time, this is a stupid law.

[ExtremePC]

Originally Posted by drewhiggins

You'd damn well better delete those songs from your iPod.

I do it every night. I know someone is going to get me on the train for not deleting the
songs from it, so I'm always careful.........don't want to risk it. Especially after listening once.




WinPod is gonna take off!! Get rid of your camera phones or DVDrecorders, they're banned.

So would that mean we'd have to get rid of our MCEs according to the SMH report? What good'd this forum be then? Absolutely ridiculous. As a person who listens to live shows all the time, this is a stupid law.

This law would basically criminalise every recording / storage technology since ferite bead arrays. (actually still used today on the space shuttle!)

[drewhiggins]

Yeah so much for Mr Ruddock 'this law will make it fairer for consumers' quip.

No matter what, no matter how many laws there are my MCE isn't going anywhere fast and neither is my massive MP3 collection. What is a ferite bead array? Never heard of one.

So what this means is if anyone sells an iPod, MP3 player, DVD recorder etc they're liable for prosecution? But Apple won't get in trouble because they do it legally, but for the consumers...oh well at least there's still live shows to be entertained by.



I know this is way off topic, but anyone understand this?





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[epgStream]

Dude, that's SPAM! Ha ha ha ha ... That's gotta be the first 'SPAM' posting to this forum!